Montpelier Mayor Mary Hooper declared the week of May 18-24 "Montpelier Affordable Housing Week."

The mayor's official declaration recognizes "great leadership" among many interests in working "to increase the number of affordable homes in Montpelier.

"However," it continues, "despite this excellent work to make this city more affordable, there is much work to be done."

Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies has just released "America's Rental Housing: The Key to a Balanced National Policy."

"The damage from today's mortgage foreclosure crisis reaches deep into the rental market," the report states. "With affordability already a long-standing problem, the current housing debacle not only adds to the number of households competing for low-cost rentals and threatens current renters with eviction from their homes, but also increases the costs of financing rental housing construction and preservation.

VHFA has just published our Green Building and Design Standards for housing developers.

The standards, which were approved by VHFA's Board of Commissioners on April 7, encourage developers who apply for VHFA financing and Housing Credits to embrace green practices, materials and design in the planning and construction of their buildings.

For several years, the Vermont Housing Council and Vermont Housing Awareness Campaign has published their annual "Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Housing and Wages in Vermont."

The report examines the gap between what Vermonters tend to earn and what they can expect to pay for housing in the Green Mountain State.

The Center for Housing Policy in Washington, D.C., has published its most recent "Paycheck to Paycheck," a study that tackles the same topic for housing markets across the country.